Quotables

Quotables

March 07, 1993

PLAY TO LIVE. Susan Trausch, columnist with the Boston Globe:

Buying a lottery ticket is an act of supreme optimism. Facing the odds of a zillion to one, we say, ``Hey, it's possible,'' or ``Can't win if I don't play,'' which is healthier than saying: ``No way. I won't even try.''

In its own twisted way, the Waco incident tells us something about America in an era of declining expectations. The temptation is great to grasp at something that speaks of hope for the future, no matter how ill-examined or ill-advised the ideas may be. This eagerness for radical change poses a great danger to people worried about the nation's direction. Equally, it poses a danger upon the leader trying to win their support for a particular set of ideas. Nothing is more profound than the anger people can work up for someone who has inspired them, then turned around and disappointed them.

THE FLOW OF NEWS. Anna Quindlen, columnist with The New York Times:

We are awash in the revealed world, talking of things that for so long were adjudged unspeakable. Events that are merely tragic must yield space on the front page for those that are truly terrible. Gang rapes instead of rapes. Pre-adolescent killers instead of teen-age ones. It is a sliding scale, and sometimes you have to wonder where and when the slide will end.

NOT WORTH IT. Mike Littwin, columnist with The Baltimore Sun:

If you get up every day for the rest of your natural life at 5:30, jog a few miles in your pre-dawn, day-glo, dressed-for-success best or climb on that damn exercise bike and pump till your legs threaten to move to another state, you won't die at age 87. You'll die at 88. What does that say to you? Right. It says: Junk the bike. It says: Pull up a chair, grab the remote and do a little tube time.

Why do television newscasts always require four people? And why are they always lined up in the same order, from the viewer's left to right: weather person, male news reader, female news reader and sports person? Couldn't the sports guy, just for kicks, sit on the other side every now and then?

HELPING TWO WAYS. Helene Pepe, a Connecticut attorney who represented Victor Cordero, one of the undocumented workers formerly employed by Zoe Baird:

There is no question that there is a national child-care and elderly-care crisis. It would be in our national interest to amend the immigration laws to permit home-care workers to work here legally. It isn't often the case that in helping others, we can also help ourselves.

FIRST THINGS FIRST. Claude Lewis, columnist with the Philadelphia Inquirer:

Crime is not an isolated factor in society. One way to help reduce the high cost of penal institutions is to increase rehabilitation efforts. But long before that, we ought to increase our determination to steer youngsters away from crime by strengthening families, increasing educational opportunity for more Americans, and providing people with a sense that it's possible for them to move up the economic ladder.